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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27316975">you've got my devotion</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/marco_makes_me_cry/pseuds/marco_makes_me_cry'>marco_makes_me_cry</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>SEVENTEEN (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Flashback Heavy, Greek gods, Inspired by The Fall of Icarus (Ancient Greek Religion &amp; Lore), M/M, Non-Linear Narrative, Well - Freeform, ancient greek!au, basically the fall of icarus but if icarus was in love with the sun, except this time icarus isnt an idiot, seokmin is apollo, some fairly detailed description of injury, soonyoung is icarus, thats up for debate actually, the sun being seokmin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 21:19:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,283</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27316975</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/marco_makes_me_cry/pseuds/marco_makes_me_cry</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“A gift from a god is not something to look down your nose at. You should be grovelling at my feet just about now.”</p><p>“I didn’t ask for a god,” Soonyoung finally managed to let out. </p><p>The man standing before him laughed, a sound that brought with it images of wheat blowing in a meadow on a hot summer’s day, white gauze blowing gently through an open window, fresh dew dripping down blossoming petals on the first morning of spring.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Lee Seokmin | DK</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Seoksoon Fireball Fest 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>you've got my devotion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/><p>
  <em>"what am i now?</em>
  <br/>
  <em>what am i now?</em>
  <br/>
  <em>what if you're someone i just want around?</em>
  <br/>
  <em>i'm fallin' again</em>
  <br/>
  <em>i'm fallin' again</em>
  <br/>
  <em>i'm fallin'"</em>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Soonyoung hissed as rogue wax came into contact with his skin. The hot mixture tugged painfully on the fine hairs on his arms as his father spread it further along, moving quickly before it could dry. With his free hand, he began pressing feathers into the still soft wax, embedding the tips swiftly but carefully to avoid pricking his tender skin. Thick leather straps held a strange contraption to his body, a large mass of lightweight wood, leather, and wax. Though his father was a great inventor, that fact was undeniable, the origin of such a unique design was not quite so earthly. As his father continued pouring the molten liquid onto his skin, Soonyoung thought back to his last meeting with the sun god. </p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Seokmin’s skin was painted with the colours of the sunset, though his usually calm eyes were stormy. Soonyoung had quickly learnt to decipher the god’s temperament through his unusual eyes. When he was content, his eyes appeared so light it was like looking into a pool, the molten liquid flowing thick and slow like honey. When he was agitated, the colour was darker, deeper, with flecks of gold that swirled and stormed like a raging ocean inside his head. This was how they had been the last time they had met. The god had stayed far later than usual, as they lay and watched his sister climb her way slowly across the night sky from their rooftop perch. Temperature regulation was something he also struggled with, Soonyoung had quickly learnt, and the skin of his palm where their hands were intertwined beside them prickled painfully with the heat. He didn’t dare separate them though.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Are you nervous?” the god had spoken at last. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Soonyoung was quiet for a moment before he answered. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “No. Are you?” </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> The god laughed, heat licking against Soonyoung’s skin like a particularly bad sunburn.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “I command the very sky itself. What would I have to be nervous about?” His words came in direct contradiction to the storm playing across Seokmin’s face. Soonyoung did not miss that the god did not answer his question forthright. When the god pulled their hands apart, Soonyoung’s palm was red and blistering angrily. “My twin is no doubt watching us with disgust. I should get back before I have to take over. I will find you again when you are safely away from here.” </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> The god pulled him into a tight embrace, before pulling back to cup Soonyoung’s face in his hands. The second their lips met, all of Soonyoung’s concerns melted away. The feeling of the god against his skin was no longer a painful burn, he had acclimatised to it the way one does to a hot bath, finding comfort in the warmth that washed over him rather than pain, relaxing as tongue swiped over his scorched lips. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>His father’s voice brought him out of his reverie and back to the present. </p><p> </p><p>“The wax will hold the feathers in place, but only for so long. You must be careful not to get it wet from the ocean spray or let it get too warm. Otherwise the feathers will come loose and they won’t be able to hold you up any longer.”</p><p> </p><p>Soonyoung dismissed his father’s concern with a wave of his free hand. “If I fly too close to the sun, the great god Apollo will save me, have no concern father.”</p><p> </p><p>His father moved on to his other arm in silence, and Soonyoung couldn’t help but wince when the hot wax met his skin again. Touches from the god of the sun always carried some heat with them, but there was always a tenderness to them too. The wax was just pain. </p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>“I can help you,” the god said.</p><p> </p><p>Soonyoung had long abandoned the hope of ever escaping Crete. He had been born there, raised there in the king’s palace. As a child, his life had been carefree, the only hardship finding enough to keep him occupied during the long, hot days. The people of the palace had treated him well enough as a child, so long as he stayed out from underneath their feet and didn’t cause too much trouble. </p><p> </p><p>The king however, Soonyoung had quickly learnt, was a fickle man who had incurred the wrath of the gods. Whispers in the palace told that he had gone against the might of Poseidon, who had retaliated with a cruel curse. The king had come to his father then, begged him to use his inventing skills to hide the god’s curse deep away where no one would ever find it. Soonyoung had been fourteen then, and still naive enough to believe that attention from the king would bring good. He couldn’t have been more wrong, as he had quickly learnt, when the king imprisoned them both in the palace so that his father could never tell anyone the truth.</p><p> </p><p>A discontented noise from the supposed god before him jerked Soonyoung to attention.</p><p> </p><p>“A gift from a god is not something to look down your nose at. You should be grovelling at my feet just about now.”</p><p> </p><p>Soonyoung looked up at the form in front of him with distrust. The man seemed human enough, at first glance, but the longer you looked, the more unsettling he became. His honey skin marked its owner as someone who had spent his whole life in the sun, beautifully dark and oiled, yet it seemed to glow even where it didn’t catch the light, the warmth and shine seemingly radiating out of him rather than bouncing off. The skin around his eyes was marked by permanent crinkles, indicating evidence of a near permanent smile etched into his skin. His teeth were perfectly white and impossibly straight, and when he flashed a smile at Soonyoung, the boy felt an indescribable feeling of warmth and calm wash over him. The most unusual, and off putting, thing about the man before him though was his eyes. Instead of eyes of brown or blue or green, the man had eyes of molten gold. Even when his eyes were still, gazing down at Soonyoung while he waited for him to speak, the gold seemed to shift and sparkle like a force entirely their own. </p><p> </p><p>“I didn’t ask for a god,” Soonyoung finally managed to let out. </p><p> </p><p>The man standing before him laughed, a sound that brought with it images of wheat blowing in a meadow on a hot summer’s day, white gauze blowing gently through an open window, fresh dew dripping down blossoming petals on the first morning of spring.</p><p> </p><p>“I am not as fickle as some of my cousins. I do not always require a sacrifice and a chant to be summoned to a soul in need.” The god must have noticed the quick look of distrust that flashed across Soonyoung’s face, as he laughed again. “Perhaps I just have a particular interest in pretty damsels in distress.”</p><p> </p><p>Soonyoung made an affronted noise. “I am not a damsel.”</p><p> </p><p>“And yet here I am.”</p><p> </p><p>He regarded the figure standing before him, and the god looked back with just as much interest. Soonyoung couldn’t imagine eye contact with a god of Olympus ever being easy, but it was particularly hard when said god’s eyes seemed to exist on their own terms of reality. </p><p> </p><p>“What do I have to do? In return, I mean.”</p><p> </p><p>The god cocked his head.</p><p> </p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p> </p><p>“Well I don’t suppose that help from a god is free. So what do I have to do for you?”</p><p> </p><p>“What makes you think there is anything you can do for me?”</p><p> </p><p>It was Soonyoung’s turn to be perplexed, and he couldn’t help the words from spilling from his mouth, no matter how rude they might come across. “Then why are you here?”</p><p> </p><p>The distance between them disappeared in a flash, leaving no time for Soonyoung to step back before the god spoke again.</p><p> </p><p>“I told you,” the god hooked a finger under Soonyoung’s chin, tilting his head up so he was forced to meet the taller’s golden gaze, “I have a thing for pretty damsels in distress.”</p><p> </p><p>The warmth that spread across Soonyoung’s cheeks had nothing and everything to do with the fingers against his skin, licking his entire body like a naked flame. His hands hung uselessly at his sides, too afraid to move. Soonyoung shivered despite the warmth spreading its way across his skin.</p><p> </p><p>“What do you want?” he whispered.</p><p> </p><p>The god simply continued staring down at him, the sun continuing its mellow descent across the sky, casting both of them over with a wash of gold.</p><p> </p><p>“I think you know.”</p><p> </p><p>Soonyoung wanted to shout that he didn’t <em> know </em>anything, he didn’t know why the god was there, or why he had been imprisoned in a tower for the last three years, or why he sometimes caught his father muttering to himself like a madman in his workshop. All he did know was that to upset or refuse a god guaranteed a fate far worse than death. The man before him was beautiful, and flashed a smile that seemed to light the very sky itself, but he was still an immortal being of Olympus, and from what Soonyoung could ascertain, a very important one, and to upset him now would be a mistake.</p><p> </p><p>“Why me?”</p><p> </p><p>“The curse on the king of Crete is his alone to bear. An innocent soul like you has no need to suffer the wrath of my uncle.”</p><p> </p><p>“How do you know I’m innocent? Have you been spying on me?”</p><p> </p><p>The god laughed again, and the warmth that washed over Soonyoung as a result felt as pure as the sunrise. </p><p> </p><p>“The mighty gods of Olympus do not <em> spy! </em>Your father has sparked quite a lot of interest up in Olympus, however. Though none seem to have taken quite an interest in you as I have. As I said before, I’ve always had a preference for the pretty ones”</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>As he stepped off the ledge of the open window, Soonyoung’s heart lurched horribly in his throat, as though it was desperate to stay up in the tower without him. Wind whistled past him as he dropped through the air, the slated roof of the main palace building below rushing up to meet him. At the last moment, his body kicked into action, his arms stretching out to catch the uplift of the wind on his makeshift wings. He levelled out immediately, soaring straight, his shadow flying across the roof tiles playfully underneath him. A whoop shot from his lips as the wind carried him further forward, away from the palace building and towards the beach, and beyond that, a seemingly endless expanse of blue. He beat his arms, once, twice, three times, bringing him higher into the air. Tears threatened to spill as the breeze stung his unprotected eyes, but he simply blinked them away. A smile stretched its way across his face, brighter and wider than it felt that he had ever smiled before.</p><p> </p><p>A shout came from behind him, indicating that his father had also succeeded in launching himself from the tower ledge, though his words were whisked away before Soonyoung could even begin to process what he said. He relaxed his arms slightly when he finally reached the water, letting himself drop down close enough to make out his reflection, distorted by the ripple of the waves, underneath him. Without thinking, he tilted to one side, letting his fingers brush lightly across the surface of the water, revelling in the cool spray that met his hands, face and neck. His father shouted again, and Soonyoung glanced back to see a handful of rogue feathers flying away on the wind behind him, no doubt dislodged by the contact with the water. He flapped his arms again, pulling himself higher as the sun parted from behind a cloud, basking Soonyoung’s face in warmth and light. Laughter bubbled its way up his chest and spilled out into the air before he could stop it. Five years locked in a tower could do nothing to dampen his excitement now, for Soonyoung felt like he was king of the whole sky. His arms beat harder, faster, lifting him further from the sweet, salty spray of the ocean below and up into the open sky. <em> Is this what it felt like to be a god? </em> He wondered idly to himself. </p><p> </p><p>His thoughts cast back to Seokmin, as they always seemed to do. The golden chariot he pulled across the sky every morning and night. Was that journey as thrilling as this? Or had the excitement worn off after millenia of doing the same thing day in and day out? He wondered if the god would let him join him in the future, whether he would appreciate the company or if it would just distract him. He thought of the god’s perfect smile, the way the golden skin around his eyes crinkled, the musical notes of his laugh that rivalled his perfect lyre playing. His father had made him leave his bow behind, the gift the only physical evidence of his meetings with the god, deeming it too heavy to risk bringing with them. What he had been worried about, Soonyoung didn’t know. He felt utterly weightless as he flew, rising higher and higher as he chased the warmth of the sun in its journey across the sky. </p><p> </p><p>Across the Sea of Crete, his father had declared they would fly, continuing north until they reached the islands of Cyclades. It was what he had deemed the safest route to escape Knossos, allowing them to seek refuge unnoticed in one of the smaller kingdoms, far enough from the jurisdiction of the king and his army. But watching the sun continue on its journey westward across the sky, no doubt led by Seokmin’s golden chariot, Soonyoung had other ideas. Continuing his ascent upwards, he tried to resist the ache building in his limbs. Humans had not been made to fly, every muscle in his arms and shoulders were screaming that fact at him as he flapped them faster. A strong gust of wind took him by surprise, throwing him backward and dislodging more feathers from his arms. Hair plastered his forehead and sweat stung his eyes, but Soonyoung paid it no mind. </p><p> </p><p>The sun was escaping him now, dropping its way teasingly closer to the horizon as Soonyoung hastened to chase it. The only thought that kept him going was Seokmin’s shocked face when he would flap his way up to the golden chariot, out flying several magical horses of Olympus with only the strength of his two arms, the thought of dropping in and pulling the reins free from his hands, becoming the first human to guide the sun across the sky. He was so caught up in the thought of what Seokmin would say, the undoubtable kisses and praising that would ensue, that he didn’t notice the way the surface of his arms was now slick with sweat, huge clumps of wax and feathers breaking free and disappearing into the open sky behind him. His father was shouting for him, voice hoarse against the strong wind, but he was too far behind and far too low for Soonyoung to hear him. </p><p> </p><p>It took a particularly violent gust of wind to alert Soonyoung to the rapidly deteriorating state of his makeshift wings. He scanned the horizon in panic, looking for a hint of sand or the tops of trees, anything to signal approaching land. They had been flying a long time, too long perhaps, but there was still nothing in sight but the endless stretch of unbroken water. Soonyoung watched in horror as a strip of wax and feathers the length of his entire forearm detached itself from his wings, dropping down to the water below. His heart had finally caught up to him where he had left it on the tower window ledge, and it hammered painfully and incessantly against the inside of his ribs. </p><p> </p><p>Wind threw him rolling backwards again, feathers now falling behind him in a constant, unending stream. His wings were yanked backwards with tremendous force. The resounding pop that followed bounced around his skull like the clang of a bell as Soonyoung’s shoulder was ripped from its socket, his arm left trailing behind him, still attached to the wing that was being dragged ever farther by the wing. White spots clouded his vision as he screamed in pain, body still tumbling endlessly in the turbulence. The leather fastening around his wrist, already slick with sweat and seawater, gave one final tug on his useless arm, before detaching itself with a deafening crack. </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Sometimes it was the gentle melody of a lyre that drew him to the roof on top of the tower, other times, it was nothing more than a subtle shift in the air that gave his presence away. The god always came when Soonyoung’s father was away, either being taunted by the king, or working in a frenzy in his workshop at the base of the tower. In truth, his father was likely already too far gone into the depths of his inventive mind to even notice whether his son was always disappearing from the tower, but Seokmin never risked it. Most times he didn’t stay long. Simply long enough to entertain Soonyoung with a brief serenade, or to deposit a gift, and then he was away again. The god was a busy one, responsible for pulling the sun across the sky every morning in his golden chariot pulled by four flaming horses, and for setting it again every night. When he wasn’t in the sky or with Soonyoung, he was at Olympus, overseeing prophecies, guiding each and every arrow shot with his name as a whispered prayer over it.</p><p> </p><p>The morning Soonyoung woke up after the god had finally divulged his plan for their escape, a very large and very dead bird sat on his window sill, a single golden arrow puncturing its breast. A few of its feathers had separated from the carcass and had drifted on the wooden boards of the floor below. On the table beside the window, a great carved wood bow gleamed in the morning sunlit. Soonyoung let his fingers glide over it, savouring the feeling of the well polished wood. Intricate golden detailing was interwoven across the entirety of the bow, it’s surface too thin for any discernible picture, but Soonyoung understood the message all the same. The god had made the bow for him. Beside it on the table lay a simple leather quiver, with two golden arrows inside, matching the one still embedded in the dead bird. Soonyoung had never even seen a magical weapon crafted by the gods before, let alone held one in his hands, but he could feel the raw energy that it exuded. The bow seemed to come to life with a gentle thrum when he lifted it, surprised that despite its great size, its weight was barely anything at all.</p><p> </p><p>“Do you like it?”</p><p> </p><p>Soonyoung spun to find the god standing behind him. He had never come inside the tower before, choosing always to meet on the roof where he had first appeared on that summer day long ago. Inside the shabby tower, his godliness shone out of every pore of his body. The very air around him seemed to glow, and Soonyoung, not for the first time, felt pale in comparison. </p><p> </p><p>“It’s beautiful,” he whispered.</p><p> </p><p>“I made it for you,” the god stepped closer, taking the bow from Soonyoung’s hands. “The arrows and quiver are magic. I imbued in them my own personal prowess of archery, so that they may never miss their target. Once all three have been fired, the quiver will instantly refill, so that you may never be without an arrow.” He placed the bow back on the table beside the quiver, and pulled Soonyoung closer to him so that he could cup his face in his hands. “Everything I do, I do for you. The sun, I pull across the sky, just to see you greet it each morning out of that window. Every night, I bring it back again, so that you may rest away from its oppressive heat.”</p><p> </p><p>Soonyoung flushed, though it had nothing to do with the gentle warmth radiating from the god’s hands pressed against his cheeks. The god of procephies, they called him, one who could bring forth premonitions of the future with his words, but he could never tell a lie. It had been two short years since the god of light had first shown himself to Soonyoung, when he was but a boy of sixteen years, and though his visits were few and far between, the sense of comfort his presence always brought was a welcome one.</p><p> </p><p>“Your father is growing impatient,” the god continued when Soonyoung didn’t speak. “It will not be long before the plan will come into action. You will be leaving here before the moon is full.”</p><p> </p><p>When Soonyoung climbed back through the tower window later that evening, his father was still nowhere to be seen. His mutterings and ravings had grown increasingly worse over the last few weeks, and Soonyoung felt a twinge of guilt at the relief he felt at being alone in the tower. He needed time to process his conversation with the god, and having his father rambling about a monster and a labyrinth would not quite help him sort through his thoughts. The skin below his chin still felt warm to the touch, and he had trouble pushing the thought of the man’s molten eyes from his mind. </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Sunlight cast sparkles of pure gold as the ocean shifted beneath him. His father’s cries faded to nothing as Soonyoung tumbled further and further out of the sky. Wind roared in his ears as it whistled past him. His eyes streamed and his fingers grasped uselessly at nothing but empty air. He watched loose feathers flying away from him at all angles as he fell, a cry that left his lips whisked away by the air around him as soon as it was born. Sky and sand and sea blurred together as he spiralled. The very contraption that had given him the gift of flight and propelled him through the air was now dragging him down, bringing the dark surface of the water spinning up to meet him at an astounding pace. Soonyoung must have blacked out from the panic, that or he was falling much faster than his brain could process, for one moment it appeared he would be falling forever, and yet in the next, he was being swallowed up by an entire ocean.</p><p> </p><p>The impact alone should’ve killed him. Every bone in his body seemed to expand and pop at the immense pressure as he hit the surface of the water. His vision went black, the roar in his ears crescendoing as the waves crashed over him, his head dragged under the surface. The current assaulted him, throwing his body this way and that as the waves tried to pull him limb from limb, to rip the lifeforce from his body. His head broke the surface momentarily, offering him the briefest of respites as water came spewing from his lungs in a violent cough, before dipping back under again. His lungs screamed for oxygen, arms useless to do anything against the power of the current in their current state after his fall. The iciness of the water seeped into his bones, a devastating change from the overwhelming warmth that had engulfed his limbs only moments before. </p><p> </p><p>He figured he should try and utter a prayer to Poseidon, hoping that the sea god was in a considerable enough mood to send some sea nymph to pull his body from the waves before it was too late. Instead, his thoughts began to cloud over, lungs begging him to do anything to get a little oxygen. His mouth opened, bubbles spewing from his mouth like the fanciest wines he’d only ever heard of in the king’s palace of Knossos. His vision started to fade again, darkness creeping into the edges of his sight as he allowed his body to be pulled by the waves. All Soonyoung could make out as he began to slip away from his body was the glistening of the sunlight on the surface of the water. It was bright, impossibly bright, seemingly getting closer and closer as his body sunk down into the depths of the ocean. For the briefest moment, Soonyoung was sure he could hear a lyre playing somewhere very close, before it was drowned out by the roar of the ocean, and then nothing at all.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Feathers floated restly on the surface of the water as Seokmin could do nothing but watch as the body of his dropped out of the sky like nothing more than a rock. His chariot and horses were still on course for the western horizon. He was fast, faster than any of his siblings but a long shot, second only to Hermes, but it still wasn’t fast enough. He ignored the boy’s father, flapping helplessly at just the right height to avoid the spray of the water soaking his feathers, blocking out everything but the vision of Soonyoung falling, faster and faster, towards the water below. </p><p> </p><p>The resounding <em> crack </em> as Soonyoung’s body made contact with the ocean surface was loud enough that Seokmin swore they would have heard it miles away on Olympus. A drop like that would be like a small tumble to the invincible god, but the boy was made of flesh and bone and blood, and the impact alone was near enough to kill him. The god continued to watch as Soonyoung’s head bobbed above the current, once, twice, before dipping under completely. The boy’s father shouted again, dropping suddenly as feathers pulled themselves free of his wings and were whisked away by the sharp ocean breeze. He watched the spot where Soonyoung had disappeared below the waves for a few more moments before propelling himself further up into the air, flying away from his helpless son and, unbeknownst to him, away from Seokmin.</p><p> </p><p>Though many of the feathers had freed themselves during his tumult through the sky, the weight of the winged structure continued to pull Soonyoung deeper down into the darkness, long after his last remaining consciousness had left him. The hands that gripped his limbs were soft and slick as seaweed, and they tangled around him just as tightly. </p><p> </p><p>Darkness burst around the blinding strike of the arrow as it shot through the water, followed by another, and another, ripping through the grasp that pulled Soonyoung deeper. The light that followed could only be brought by one thing, and whatever creature had planned on taking Soonyoung for its meal hissed before disappearing in retreat back into the darkness. Another pair of hands gripped the boy’s limbs, this time pulling him and the wings that had dragged him down into the water up and out, their bodies breaking the surface together in a flash of light. His head rolled back onto Seokmin’s shoulder with a wet thud, body impossibly small in the god’s arms. </p><p> </p><p>Seokmin knew everything there was to know about healing and medicine. People prayed to him when they needed his help, when someone was dying of an illness or injury he was the one they lit effigies for, he was the one who saved them or sent diseases to those he deemed needed to suffer. And yet, as he looked down at the soaking, lifeless body of the boy in his arms, golden skin and wings dripping softly against the sand, Seokmin felt like anything but a god. He helplessly picked at the few remaining feathers still stuck to the boy’s skin, pulled him close enough for his lips to brush against his wet hair as he murmured his name over and over again.</p><p> </p><p>Sea nymphs had already gathered in the shoal, glowing eyes and heads adorned with seaweed watching them from just below the surface. They stayed there, whispering in their strange bubbling language, until his sister finally found him, seated on the shore, cradling the body in his arms. At the arrival of the goddess, they scattered, leaving only churning foam in their wake. She didn’t speak for a long while, choosing merely to watch as Seokmin continued to thread his fingers softly through the boy’s now dry hair. </p><p> </p><p>When she did finally speak, her voice was softer than perhaps he had ever heard it. “Brother, it is time you let him go.”</p><p> </p><p>Seokmin didn’t answer, not even daring to pull his gaze away from Soonyoung’s face, strangely peaceful in the glow of the evening sunlight. Despite the damage his body had taken in the fall, on the outside he looked relatively unscathed. In fact, if not for the unnatural way his arm hung down by his side, and the angry red patches of skin from the hot wax, Seokmin could almost convince himself that the boy had simply fallen asleep in his lap.</p><p> </p><p>A pale hand covered his own, stilling it amidst the tangles of Soonyoung’s hair, and his sister’s round face appeared before his own. As siblings, they were polar opposites and yet identical in every way. Her eyes, impossibly clear, held within them the comforting ebb and flow of the tides, while the quiver behind her back sparkled with all the lustre of the full moon. There was sympathy in her gaze, but pity too.</p><p> </p><p>“Mortals are fragile. You knew this would happen eventually.” She gave Seokmin’s hand a gentle pat before pulling away.</p><p> </p><p>Without thinking, he snatched the arrow from her quiver as she turned away, his own lying abandoned on the floor of his chariot, still hanging somewhere in the evening sky. Before she could even move to stop him, he had pressed the tip of it against the soft skin on the inside of his elbow. The weapons of man bounced straight off, but a weapon made by the gods had no quarrel over what skin they pierced. Golden icor began to flow from where the arrow had pierced his skin, running down his arm and dripping into the sand below, where it turned to droplets of solid gold. </p><p> </p><p>Seokmin shifted the boy’s body in his uninjured arm, tilting his head back enough to hold his now dripping hand over Soonyoung’s slightly parted mouth. He let as much blood flow as he could before the wound began to heal over itself, before dropping his head down to press their lips together. Soonyoung’s were impossibly cold, but they began to warm and soften almost immediately. Light burst out from where Seokmin’s hand now rested over Soonyoung’s still chest, warmth radiating out with a golden glow that broke through his skin as it worked its way through his veins. A gentle breath puffed against Seokmin’s lips, a cold hand gently grasping his chest. When the god pulled away, a soft pair of eyes were staring at him in shock.</p><p> </p><p>A rustle of fabric indicated the departure of his sister, the now absent space where the arrow had been beside him confirmed it. The god watched Soonyoung bring a hand up to touch his lips, his fingers coming away tinged with gold.</p><p> </p><p>“What did you do?” he whispered, voice torn by wind and salt.</p><p> </p><p>“Something that will take a lot of explaining back on Olympus.” </p><p>
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